Jean baptiste verroken



No. 622,736. Patented Apr. ll, I899. J. B. VERROKEN.

ELECTRIC OVERHEAD RAILWAY.

(Application filed May 24, 1898) (No Model.)

SATES ATET rricn.

JEAN BAPTISTE VERROKEN', OF ANTWERP, BELGIUM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 622,736, dated April 1 1, 1899.

Application filed May 24, 1898. Serial No. 681,651. (No model.) I

To (tZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JEAN B'APTISTE VERRO- KEN, a citizen of the Kingdom of Belgium, residing at Antwerp, Belgium, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric Overhead Railways, of which the following is a specification.

This improvement has been patented in Belgium by Letters Patent No. 132,357, dated December 4:, 1897, and in no other country.

The present invention relates to overhead railways and'trams moved by electricity, and its chief object is the improvement in the construction and suspension of the rails, as well as in the construction of the motor-car. This new system of aerial railway has the advantage of not requiring expensive metallic constructions, which are so unsightly in the streets, boulevards, &c., and besides offers all security, the cars being entirely unable to run off the rails, and can be used for railways of great or little traffic or tramways. These results are obtained by suspending rails of a special shape to metallic cables in the same manner as suspension-bridges and in coupling the carriage to motor-cars acted by electricity and provided with guiding rollers,

which prevent their running off the rails, and

with a trolley for receiving the electric current, which will be fully described in the course of this description and specified by the claims.

In the annexed drawings is shown an example of the practical form of the rails and the motor-cars for this new system of overhead railway.

Figure 1 shows a longitudinal elevation of a motor-car and a portion of a rail. Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the car and of the rail, taken in the line X Y of Fig. 1.

In the figures thesame letters indicate corresponding parts.

. A is the cable carrying the rail.

B indicatessuspension-rods of the rail.

B represents the drag-iron of the suspen sion-rods B.

O is the rail.

D is the car, which is provided with sus pension-rings E.

F indicatesthe driving=wheels, G the guiding-rollers, and II the safety-rollers. Finally,

I is the pulley of the trolley, and J the elec- I tric conductor, supported by the isolators K.

In this new system of railway the rails ,G are formed of a horizontal plate a, provided with two vertical partitions 1), between which are placed the suspension-rods B, which at their lower extremities are provided, with heads which support the rails.

The suspension-rods B are connected by the drag-iron B to the steel cable A, which is supported by trestles fixed firmly on the upper sides of framework crossed by the rail and placed on the summit of a metallic pilework sunk into the soil.

ing-wheels F,placed in equal numbers on eachside and in the interior of the car and which run on the horizontal bands at of the rail and turn on axes fixed into the uprights f of the car.

The wheels F can be provided with metallic flanges on their outer sides like the wheels of ordinary railway carriages in order to avoid the lateral displacing of the car; but in the car shown in the annexed drawings this This pilework can be replaced according to circumstances by result is produced by means of vertical rollers G, placed in pairs at each end of the car and each side of the rail.

The rollers G rotate on vertical axes retained in position by small ties h, and when the car suffers a slight lateral displacing these rollers are rolling 011 one side on the corresponding lateral border of the rail and limit the displacing without causing as great friction as the flanges which could be adapted to the driving-wheels F.

Under the end driving-wheels F are placed four safety rollers II, turning on axes fixed in the uprights f of the car and which serve in the curves to hinder too great a rising of the car D by rolling on the lower face of the rail when this vertical movement exceeds a certain limit.

On the lower part of the'car and toward its middle is placed a trolley-pulley I, turning on 'its axis and pressed by a balance weight or Y same as that of the electric tramwaysthat is to say, the driving-wheels F are moved by electric motors connected electrically by one part with the conductor J by means of the trolley I and on the other part with the rail I O, which serves as return-conductor.

1. In an electric overhead railway, the combinat-ion with suitable supports and cables and suspension-rods, of rails formed of a horizontal plate carrying an electric conductor by means of insulators, and furnished on the upper face with two vertical partitions between which are arranged the suspension-rods furnished with'a head at their lower ends to carry the rail, substantially as described.

2. In an electric overhead railway the combination with suitable. supports, cables and suspension-rods, rails and an electric conductor, of a motor-car with vertical drivin g-wheels placed on the interior and on each side of the upper part of the car to support this latter,

vertical rollers placed at each side and at the ends of the car to prevent lateral displacement of the latter; horizontal rollers placed under the rails in front of the end wheels to prevent vertical displacement of the car, and a trolley-pulley pressed by a spring or balance-weight against the conducting-wire to take up the current, substantially as de scribed.

JEAN BAPTISTE VERROKEN. WVitnesses:

H. CHRISTIANESERD, FRANCIS E. VONIHAN. 

